Gallery Barton: February 2018

ON READING: a photographic exhibition by Monique Campbell

I am a photographer and a reader. They are titles I proudly wear and interchange them in my artistic work.

While perusing the used book shelves of KW Books back in the 1990’s, I found a first-edition copy from 1971 of my favourite photographer André Kertész “On Reading.” More recently I discovered some of George S. Zimbel’s images on the subject in his book “Momento.”

I have gone on to create my own images and have amassed my own collection which I’m happy to share with other readers, photographers, and the community.

There’s something about holding a book between your hands, the smell of the pages, the found bookmark from another reader of a library book, the randomness of an inscription upon buying a second-hand store book.

I was an early adopter of E-Books. I had my parents purchase one from Amazon and ship it up to me from their winter home in Florida long before the E-Books came Canada. They have their place but mine got tucked away in a drawer and forgotten. Originally books were cheaper to buy electronically, it had the portability for trips to download a dozen so an extra suitcase wasn’t needed, the ability to download the first chapter as a sample and the instant ability to load books in the comfort of sitting in pajamas at 3 a.m.

To me, it doesn’t matter what people use to access a book, be it, a hard cover, e-reader, tablet. The genre is also irrelevant…graphic novel, chick-lit, horror, humour, memoir as long as people read.

Barton Branch offers artists from the community an opportunity to exhibit small intimate monthly shows in a dynamic public setting.